1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new solder mask plug which is used to mask a through hole in a printed circuit board during a wave soldering operation, and in one aspect to an improved contact for use in a board socket.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art patents teach the advantages of utilizing a removable plug in a printed circuit board during a common process known as wave soldering for making permanent interconnections electrically with the printed circuit board. When it is desired to not fill, during the wave soldering operation, all of the holes in the circuit board when wave soldering the other leads or soldered tails of other electrical components to the board, a plug may be inserted in the hole which is later removed to open the hole.
Prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,889, assigned to the assignee of this application, discloses a solder mask plug as part of a molded connector body which is located on a printed circuit board. The connector body carries contacts which are placed into the connector body and disposed adjacent the molded plugs. The contact tails and plugs are disposed in the holes of the printed circuit board and are wave soldered into the board. The plugs are later driven out of the connector to allow other contact tails to make connection with the contacts of the connector from the bottom of the board. This is important in board stacking applications where the mating pin comes from the bottom or solder side of the board.
The advantages of this invention over the prior known device is that it eliminates the major problem of intricately molding the connector body and breaking the plug from the molded body. Further, the present invention will permit the overall height of the connector to be reduced.
Present invention is thus believed to afford advantages over the prior known devices for connecting a contact to a printed circuit board and later allowing connection to the printed circuit board from either direction and reduce the height of the connector body.
The product of the present invention will still permit a wave soldering of the contact onto the board together with the other electrical components and allow the subsequent opening of a hole in the printed circuit board by removal of a plug for insertion of a contact tail of an electrical component through the hole to make connection with the board.
A further advantage of the present invention is that the masking plug is protected from breakage during manufacture, shipping or assembly operations as was present with the prior design.